Natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark

Likely to have been painted at Mowanjum in the western Kimberley, circa 1963
The Thomas Vroom Collection, The Netherlands 

Painted on a curved and thick piece of bark, which has a number of naturally occurring holes to its surface. There are areas of pigment loss, most prominent on the left hand yam, although scattered elsewhere throughout the painted surface. Remaining pigments appear in good order and the painting has had no repairs or restoration.
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Cf. Ronald Berndt and Catherine Berndt, Aboriginal Australian Art a Visual Perspective, Methuen Australia, Sydney, 1982, for two stylistically similar paintings collected by Peter Lucich at Mowanjum

Mickey Bungkuni was Wattie Karruwara’s father’s brother and hence, in terms of Woonambal kinship rules was considered a ‘father’ rather than an ‘uncle’ (the term for uncle being used for men who stood in the relationship as a mother’s brother). Bungkuni shared the same totemic and clan associations as Wattie. Both men were associated with the Hunter River (Mariawala) basin, an area known as Elalemerri to the Woonambal. The Hunter River, rising in the rugged majesty of Mitchell Plateau, flows into the turbulent waters of Prince Frederick Harbour. His clan is known, as Landar after the small yellow-flowered, holly-leaved, pea-flower, Bossiaea bossiaeoides, locally called Emu-flower; the flowers and seedpods are a favourite food of emus. Bungkuni also had the Brolga (karangkuli) as his primary patrilineal moiety totem. In the late 1950s and through the 1960s, Bungkuni was regarded by the Mowanjum community asཧ the senior Wunambal male.

The roughly shaped bark suggests that this painting was done no later than the early 1960s. Similar roughly shaped barks painted by Bungkuni and Karruwarra were collected by a number of people in this period, including anthropologist Peter Lucich. In the 1964-1966 period John McCaffrey 🐠provided prepared barks of more regular shape for the men to paint on.

This particular painting is reminiscent of a painting by Wattie Karruwarra executed on paper for the anthropologist John McCaffrey in the mid 1960s (see Sotheby’s, The John McCaffrey Collection of Kimberley Art, 28 July, 2003, Lot 17). While researching the McCaffrey Collection, I was informed by kinsfolk of Watty and Bungkuni that these images represented karnmangku yams (Dioscorea transversa) an important vegetable in the diet of the people of the region. Similar forms have been identified in the rock art of the area.

KA